Title

Cicada as a teaching model: The development and activities of Cicada Press, College of Fine Arts, UNSW Sydney.

Author

Kempson, Michael

Details

Sixth Australian Print Symposium, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2007.

Publication date

2007

Type

Conference paper

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Cicada as a teaching model: The development and activities of Cicada Press, College of Fine Arts, UNSW Sydney.
by Michael Kempson.

I don’t know of many artists who make prints as a part of their creative practice that are self-taught. Most printmakers I have encountered have participated in some sort of ritual instruction and this education can take many forms. Most commonly, for both conventional processes and funding dependent digital media, it is at an art school affiliated with the University or a Vocational Training Sector.

Therefore, it is fair to surmise that most of us would have an opinion on the relative merits of their introduction to and training in printmaking practice. When I talk to artists and I ask them to reflect upon their educational experiences in printmaking I have at times been challenged, because their memories can be as passionate and inspiring as often as they can be pedantic or desultory.

Printmaking curricula within tertiary institutions and the philosophical values that underpin them tend to reflect the relative strengths of each tenured academic but I don’t know of any one individual with an expertise in every facet of our practice. Accordingly, the paradigm for printmaking instruction reflects a very broad spectrum and by implication there is considerable difference in a preferred mode of delivery. The solution for many educators is to offer diversity, particularly if they are responsible for the overall management of academic coursework programs. This is a responsibility made very clear to me at the end of each academic session when I get the results of my course and teaching reviews, completed by students with the comfort of anonymity. For those who might not be familiar with this type of evaluation process, you might well understand that it can sometimes make for fairly gruesome reading.

From my experience students have a huge range of expectations some of them quite fair and reasonable and others that are impossible or unrealistic in current circumstances. The range of course programs we offer attempt to challenge our students and, in the process, demand of them, that they have and make choices in their very specific artistic development. Cicada Press is just one of those programs.

Cicada Press as a workshop model has been developed with a degree of intuition but has been positioned under the theoretical umbrella of the educational theorist Paolo Freire who emphasises dialogue, community, informal processes and the importance of lived experience in learning. However considerable inspiration has also been derived from the print-workshops aligned with tertiary institutions in this country. The work over many years of Northern Editions at Charles Darwin University and until recently Ron McBurnie with Lyrebird and Monsoon Press at James Cook University are just two of the many models that have informed our development.

Cicada Press functions as a conventional editioning print workshop but our specific aims have always been educationally focussed, in support of the research priorities of our invited artists. One specific and unique outcome has been the development of four Custom Printing courses so that students have a formal and measurable mechanism in which to interact with these artists in their creative process. These introductory and advanced level courses are offered as Electives to all students at UNSW, so rather than cater solely as intensive or specialised programs for printmaking students we welcome those from other fine art disciplines and even, as has been the case recently, from architecture and humanities faculties from our main campus in Kensington. This of course offers a considerable challenge when individual students with no print experience are assisting invited artists who often have little or no experience themselves in the production of print-based works. We try not to let a little thing like this get in the way.

The intent of a course such as this is quite different from most courses offered at art schools where the focus is normally on the outcomes of the individual participant. In this context the student becomes, with my support, a facilitator and it requires of them a less self-focused and a more altruistic approach. Understandably in an art school environment this does not appeal to all, but there are a myriad of benefits for those who embrace the objectives of the program.

We would normally invite two artists to be the focus of the course (but it has been as many as seven) and much effort goes into choosing people that are methodologically or conceptually different. Each invited artist needs to be open enough to welcome our students into their creative process and it requires of them a generosity of spirit, for not only are they revealing a process that usually takes place in the privacy of their studio but they are asked to respond to the many questions generated from their presence. We are very fortunate that all seem to value the opportunity that we offer them and respond well to the communal nature of this approach to art production.

It is important that our students experience a working relationship with artists who have varying conceptual and aesthetic interests. The differing procedural strategies employed in this collaborative relationship between artist and printer is of crucial instructional benefit. What better way for a student to deal with the challenge of understanding their own creative process than to participate in the conceptualising, the choices and struggles and the crafting to completion of work by artists they respect. As sometimes happens, more can be learnt from the insight that comes from working with someone that you might not appreciate. Respect and understanding is something that can develop from a personal connection.

In support of the custom printing activities, we also attempt to generate a combination of course projects with a student focus that introduce the challenges of facilitating matrix production for someone other than themselves. They focus on establishing an appropriate skill base and introduce efficient printing routines that vary dramatically from the normal printing melee found in studios prior to assessment. A usual final project is the production of folios of work containing one work from each course participant touching on a broad thematic issue within the creative arc of the invited artists. Last session we worked with Reg Mombassa and Ben Quilty and the final project was based on images of the vernacular. This session we are working with painters Elisabeth Cummings and Ian Grant who work predominantly as interpreters of landscape.

Trust established through clear and effective communication is the keystone for a productive working relationship between artist and custom printer and the students experience this building relationship firsthand. Artists, during the many deliberations we have over a proof, will ask the opinions of the assisting students, bringing them closer into the process of a successful BAT resolution. It becomes obvious that with the support of the Custom printer an artist, apart from using trusted strategies, can even have the freedom to take risks and try approaches that are not a normal part of their repertoire. Making prints can actually be fun and can influence change and growth in their work in other mediums.

As well as dealing with the core business of custom printing students are offered insights into the many other aspects of this process, ranging from the initial correspondence with artists and with curators or galleries that might present Cicada Press exhibitions. Skills are developed in the documentation of workshop activity and the archiving of completed editions. A most positive result, certainly from the feedback I get from participants, is that they receive a printers-proof of all works they have editioned, becoming tangible and valuable results of their labour. The benefits of the interaction between our students and our invited artists go beyond the work-related activities of the studio. Recently we worked with Guy Warren, who at 84, has a career that spans seven decades. He has an enviable reputation as a dedicated painter, critic and innovative arts educator. He shared stories with our students about his life’s experience that embraced war service in Bougainville, a decade in London in the 50’s with artists like Fred Williams and influences, most notably from the St. Ives group of artists including Patrick Heron and Roger Hilton. We heard of an experience while as a young artist he sought out his reclusive art hero, Ian Fairweather on Bribie Island, eventually spending a memorable five hours over a bottle of red. Of his relationship with his property in the Illawarra Escarpment at Jamberoo and his Icarus sky drawings produced in collaboration with a bemused but supportive sky writer.

He, like all of the guests of Cicada Press, enrich the educational environment of COFA, not only for our Printmaking students, but for those from other disciplines who would come in to talk or look at the prints produced that we hope will go on to inspire their own potential participation in printmaking. All the artists who work with us value the experience and look to give something back to COFA, often making themselves available for lectures and seminars, and when asked have participated in the graduating exhibitions of our Printmaking students. In 2004 Reg Mombassa along with his brother Peter and their band Dog Trumpet played at couple of sets and in 2005 Norman Hetherington, who in my opinion is one of our national living treasures (appearing on television on its very first day and notably taught in the most gentle of ways generations of Australian children about the imaginative potential of drawing). Norman, performing in the guise of his alter ego Mr. Squiggle and along with Miss Rebecca was able to facilitate a regression back to childhood for an audience of 200 hard-nosed art students and their parents and their grandparents.

Equally important has been the desire to work with artists who are early in their careers. In this current academic session, apart from the invited artists with whom we are working, opportunities have been offered to four Masters and Doctoral candidates who are working with students enrolled in our Advance Custom Printing course. These students are allocated one each of these painters and are given a greater responsibility in managing a single print project to completion. The successful explorations with this new generation of artists offer the promise of a sustainable and lasting relationship with Printmaking. COFA is working hard to expand our international profile and we are positioning ourselves to engage with comparable institutions, particularly in Asia. Our Printmaking program mirrors this objective, with a large exchange exhibition in 2005 shared with The Faculty of Fine Arts of Chiangmai University in Thailand featuring work by staff and students of both institutions and the artists working out of Cicada Press. We have a similar project with The Central Academy of Art in Beijing planned for 2008. One outcome, of which I am particularly proud, is that of a former post-graduate student, Kitikong Tilokwattanotai who has established his own custom-printing workshop in Chiangmai. We share ideas, our expertise and moral support in Kong’s work with many internationally recognised Thai artists and hope to develop collaborative projects with the indigenous Hmong tribes-people of the country’s mountainous north.

Balancing our international endeavours, Cicada Press has developed a working relationship with indigenous artists from Papunya in the Northern Territory. At the request of community elders like Michael Nelson Jagamara, Linda Tjonggarda and Sammy Butcher (of Warumpi Band fame) and under the leadership of Professor Vivien Johnson, Papunya Tjupi has been formed to deal with a lack of a focus for art related activities, particularly for the youth of the region. Cicada Press has hosted one workshop attended by some of the female descendants of the originators of the central desert art movement. Printing sessions directed by some of our research students are planned in Papunya for May with a second COFA hosted workshop for younger male artists scheduled in June, to be supported by the Custom Printing students. Much effort is going towards the establishment of a Papunya Tjupi art centre that will assist in addressing many of the pressing needs of the community and contribute to the goal of offering alternatives to a culture of dependency.

Anyone who has been to art school must acknowledge that it is a real privilege to be in an environment where freedom is given for a lively and expansive engagement in this most defining of human traditions. True, today it is an expensive privilege, but it is a privilege none the less. A consistently positive memory I have of my own art school experience is of the late Earle Backen’s devotion to his printmaking instruction. That sincere commitment was a great example.

© Michael Kempson, 2007
Paper delivered at the Sixth Australian Print Symposium, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2007

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02 Dec 2024